This article reports on three salient socio-cultural and systemic factors that are influential in play in Abu Dhabi Education Council's (ADEC's) kindergarten (KG) framework from the teacher perspective. Anecdotal evidence suggests that during ADEC's progressive educational reform, emphasis has reverted to academic performance outcomes rather than whole child learning through play. Tensions may then occur surrounding the nature and extent of play practices for early learning. Following semi-structured interviews with 60 KG teachers, three salient factors emerged. These are illustrated in this article and discussed in light of the international literature on play. Tensions in policy and practice highlighted in this article are: a focus on academic performance outcomes; children's readiness to engage in play and parent perspectives on play. The article then discusses what these tensions may mean for the future of play in ADEC KGs situated within a period of educational reform.

Building on recent efforts to reconceptualize development and socialization as contextually grounded processes, several aspects of Yucatec Mayan children's daily lives are observed, including maintenance activities, social orientation, work, and play. For each category of activity, the behavior of children ranging in age from 0 to 17 is described. Three principles of engagement generated to explain the Mayan cultural context (primacy of adult work, parental beliefs, and independence of child motivation) are used to interpret the descriptive data, illustrating how cultural understanding enables a meaningful interpretation of Mayan children's behavior and how lack of knowledge of these principles could lead to a misinterpretation through a Western cultural lens.

Join PEDAL in the conversation about the changing nature of childhood…are we really heading from 'free range' to 'hot house'? Is the Children's Commissioner for England correct when she calls for play on prescription and claims that children lead a "battery hen existence" (more info in the report 'Playing Out')?

Chaired by one of PEDAL’s lead researchers, Dr Jenny Gibson, the panel of speakers comprise of:

Play is a serious matter for young children across all cultures. This is evidenced by the passionate, intensive and energetic engagement many children invest in this activity. Play experiences are widely recognised to create the foundation for a child’s healthy and holistic development. In Finland opportunities for play are highly regarded in the education of children under seven years old, and the interest in playful learning has extended to the education of older children and even adults.

Professor Kumpulainen’s talk will reflect on current international research and how this evidence is reflected in Finnish education policy and practice. It will show how play and learning is also about playing with learning. The talk will end by considering the changing landscape of play in the digital era and its consequences for children’s learning, educational practice and teacher professional competencies.

Kristiina Kumpulainen is Professor of Education at the Department of Teacher Education at the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki. She is a founding member and the scientific director of the Playful Learning Center (www.plchelsinki.fi). She has also served as the Director of the Information and Evaluation Services Unit at the Finnish National Board of Education before her current position. She received her PhD in Education from the University of Exeter in 1994.

Dr Julie Kirkham is a senior Psychology lecturer and programme leader for the MScFamily and Child Psychology at the University of Chester. Her research interests include children’s symbolic development and the role of art, play and creativity within different educational curricula. Her
published work investigates the relationships between language, drawing and symbolic play and the influence of Montessori and Steiner education upon these abilities. Dr Kirkham is currently involved in research studying the relationship between childhood fantasy play, imaginary
friends and personality traits and abilities during adulthood, as well as the development of children’s aesthetic understanding and preferences
for different forms of art.

The seminar will consider several small scale exploratory studies which present interesting results and potential avenues for further research.

Social learning has been a large focus of early developmental psychology for the past three decades. While it reveals how culture is transmitted to young children, questions about how young children come up with their own ideas and learn for themselves have been largely ignored.

This talk, with Dr Elena Hoicka from the University of Bristol, will present research showing that toddlers can be creative and come up with their own ideas. Elena will focus on toddlers' creation of their own novel jokes and pretending, and toddlers' divergent thinking with novel objects.

Play, as an educational concept, has entered many kindergartens in China; yet it has not become a core idea, or been prioritised in the teaching and learning process. An ongoing trans-provincial study started in 2008, using observation, interviews and document analyses. Based on findings from nine kindergartens in three provinces, this article illustrates how the concept of play is perceived and manifested in kindergartens located in three cities across China. It is suggested that there is a certain relationship between the rank and the status of play in a kindergarten, which may offer a systematic way to better understand how the concept of play is represented in Chinese kindergartens. Evidence also shows that the play concept has influenced Chinese educational ideas and pedagogy at certain levels but without changing the fundamental Chinese ideas of a play and learning relationship. Explanations for the phenomena observed, such as ranking versus forms of manifestation will be suggested.